


Henry's Book

by giors1



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Domestic, F/F, Family Feels, Flash Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 03:19:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giors1/pseuds/giors1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after the events connected to his fairy tale book, Henry has the chance of finding another book that will help him for the rest of his new life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Henry's Book

**Author's Note:**

> Flashfic from my Tumblr, after a prompt requesting "grown-up Henry + established Swan Queen".
> 
> For the record, I'm working on the last chapter of Up and Down and, please, forgive me for the fact than it takes me a century to post updates to that story :)

He knew his mother had a thing for books.

Books to read, books to study, books to cast spells.

She had always been extremely jealous of them and he remembered so tenderly every hour she used to spend flipping through their pages, touching their leather covers and inhaling their scent.

The deep affection his mother had for her books was pretty similar to what she felt for her wife; a relationship based on respect, trust and, especially, on the comfort of finding, at the end of the day, her happy ending.

There was only a book Regina allowed Henry to take with him.

_No_ , not that infamous book he had always with him when he was a kid, when everything was difficult and when his mothers weren’t happy.

  
  


The night before he left to move to Connecticut, Regina went in his room and placed a little book on his suitcase. It was covered with a florentine paper and, differently from all the other books in the house, it was greasy and wrinkled.

"Read it, Henry. And use it" she said with a smile, even if Henry was sure that, in another world or situation, she would have cried, like every mother does when their kid is going to a university far away from home.

"I wrote it myself, even if you’ll find out also Emma left a sign of her presence. This book saved her from overweight, diabetes and hypertension. Use it, dear".

"Doesn’t Emma need it anymore?" Henry said the first thing that came into his mind, always showing his protective attitude towards his mothers; that kind of feeling every kid feels, when it comes to leave home and become an adult. _Will they be fine? Will they be sad? Will they try to kill each others again, like when I was 12?_

"She told me she has me and we will have all the time of the world to write another recipe book together and try to burn the kitchen down. She told me she’s not going anywhere and you will need this more than she does."

"Thanks mum". The following hug came so natural and made Henry thought about the time when those displays of affection between them were rare, distant and cold. But then Emma came into their lives and, like the perfect secret ingredient of a recipe, made everything perfect. Made everything good, again.

"I must go now. Your mother is probably crying like a baby and complaining about Yale kidnapping her son".

Sarcasm.

She got it from Emma, he was sure, as a weapon to get out of emotional situations.

She gave him another hug, and her smile was radiant, proud and a little bit sad. Henry flipped rapidly though the pages while his mother was walking out of his room.

  
  


"Mum!"

Regina stopped and turned, imagining just for a second a 10 year-old Henry calling her because he wanted another goodnight kiss before falling asleep.

"Your lasagna! I can’t find the recipe in here!" Henry stated with great surprise.

His mother winked before closing the door.

"I think I’m giving you another good reason to visit us more often…"

Henry smiled, holding the book tighter and tighter.

"And ignore that last page where you mother wrote _Eat french fries whenever you can_ " she shouted when she was already outside her son’s bedroom.

Sarcasm.

Henry shed a tear.

And, despite the sarcasm her wife taught her, Regina shed a tear, too.

Her kid was becoming a man.

_Their_ kid was becoming a man.

 


End file.
